Julia Child's Sautéed Mushrooms
Elevate mashed potatoes or steak with a topping of Julia Child's simple, classic sautéed mushrooms.
Servings 2
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon port
- 5 to 6 large white mushrooms, sliced
Instructions
- Melt butter in a sauce pan over moderately low heat. Add port and salt, swirling to combine. Add mushrooms and stir to coat them with the butter mixture. Cover pan and cook for 8 minutes; mushrooms will give off moisture, so don't be concerned that there isn't enough liquid in the pan.
- Remove lid, raise heat and boil for several minutes until liquid is completely evaporated (we actually stop just short of letting the liquid evaporate completely—this little bit of liquid is a heavenly extra as you spoon the mushrooms over a steak or baked or mashed potatoes). Serve.
Kitchen Notes
Storing mushrooms. On just about every topic including this one, everyone's got an opinion. What most people say, though, and what works just fine for me, is to put them in a paper bag, fold the top shut and store them in your fridge. Despite their dry outer appearance, mushrooms contain a fair amount of moisture (as we see when we have them in a hot pan); storing them in plastic will cause them to spoil faster. For the same reason, don't store them in the vegetable crisper drawer, which is specifically designed to keep produce from drying out. All that said, if your mushrooms come packaged in plastic wrap, most sources say to leave them that way 'til you're ready to use them. Regarding that, use them within a few days, or within a week if they are packaged and unopened.
Cleaning mushrooms. We all have those little soft brushes for cleaning mushrooms tucked in a drawer somewhere, don't we? Leave them there. What works best, hands down, is a dry, wadded up paper towel. Use it to gently brush dirt from mushrooms. Scrape away any stubborn spots with a paring knife.